Think of a fuel-cell car as an exhaust-free
electric car with a little chemical factory producing the electrons in
place of a battery. Hydrogen is the fuel (although the industry refers
to call it an “energy carrier”), and range is an excellent 300 miles or
better. The other advantage over battery cars is that refueling is just like getting gas, and takes only about five
minutes. The concept has been around for centuries (the fuel cell was
invented by a British barrister in the 19th century), but it took
decades of research to whittle costs down to the point where a
practical, market car was possible. We’re there now.

A Toyota Mirai refuels at the pump in southern California. (Photo: Jim Motavalli)

Hyundai was
the first out of the gate with the Tucson fuel-cell car last spring.
Initially it’s available only in southern California because that’s
where the stations are. The big challenge for hydrogen is the
infrastructure—the stations cost $1 million or more, and right now
there’s a robust network only in the Los Angeles area, though
an additional 19 are in the planning stages in California. And Toyota is
subsidizing a dozen stations in the Northeast. Connecticut recently
announced that it would offer $450,000 in subsidies for two hydrogen
stations in that state, though for some reason they’re restricted to
within 10 miles of Hartford.

The BMW eDrive 5-Series fuel-cell car was developed with Toyota. There's a hydrogen version of the i8, too. (Photo: BMW)

Toyota’s Mirai hits dealerships in
California this fall, with the East Coast also in the plans later.
Toyota just announced some stellar numbers for the car — a range of 312
miles on a hydrogen fill, and an estimated 67 mpg equivalent. Here's the Mirai on video, via Consumer Reports:

Toyota
is preparing a big push on fuel-cell cars. “Just as the Prius
introduced hybrid-electric vehicles to millions of customers nearly 20
years ago, the Mirai is now poised to usher in a new era of efficient
hydrogen transportation,” said Jim Lenz, CEO of Toyota North America.

Toyota is also working with BMW, previously mostly quiet on fuel cells — though
it showed an early interest in hydrogen with 7-Series cars that burned
the stuff. BMW said this week it will test a Toyota-enhanced fuel-cell
car on public roads in July.

The Hyundai Tucson was the first fuel-cell car on the U.S. market, last year, but it already has plenty of competition. (Photo: Jim Motavalli)

BMW showed a 5-Series “Gran Turismo”
with a fuel cell (and a range of 310 miles) at a race track in France,
and plans a “technically mature, customer-ready vehicle sometime after
2020.” Germany has one of the better hydrogen networks globally, with 18
stations and plans for 50. Daimler and partners recently opened a
station on the autobahn, a first for Germany. Mercedes, meanwhile, is being fairly quiet about its plans, but one executive said
the automaker would field what could turn out to be an SUV- or crossover-based car in 2017. With the recent F-Cell and other experimental models through a long history, Daimler has been a leader in the field.

But wait, there’s
more! Three Japanese automakers, Toyota, Honda and Nissan (until
recently a dark horse player in the field) said July 1 that they will
band together to pay as much as one-third of the operating costs of
Japan’s hydrogen network, and pledged up to $50 million (as much as
$90,000 per station). The Japanese hydrogen market could grow to an $815
million business by 2020, analysts said. The government has already
subsidized home and office fuel cells.

Honda's FCV Concept, shown at the Detroit Auto Show, will soon be followed by the production version. (Photo: Jim Motavalli)

Honda will be a big player
in fuel cells, and showed off the FCV Concept car at the Detroit Auto
Show back in January. It plans to have the production version of that
car on American roads next year.

So there’s a lot of news, and an invigorated sector that is finally going from the planning stages to the showroom floor.